


Tastes Change

by StephaniD



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-20 01:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17613179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephaniD/pseuds/StephaniD
Summary: The show never really explored Ezri's relationship with food post-joining as more than a joke, or showed the DS9 crew getting to know her (they just all seem to be friends by the baseball ep), so I wrote a little fic about that. (Note: this is even more dialogue-heavy than my usual fics!)





	Tastes Change

**Author's Note:**

> Set between the end of 7.2 (Shadows and Symbols) and beginning of 7.4 (Take Me Out to the Holosuite)

“Can I try a bite of your hasperat?” Ezri asked. Kira gestured her to go ahead. Ezri took a bite and pulled a face.  
“Never tried Bajoran food before?” Kira asked.  
“No, and one of the many things joining can screw up is your sense of taste, which I was very much not expecting. But now I have no idea what I like anymore, so I have to try everything all over again.” Ezri explained with a sigh. “I'm glad Benjamin understands. A few days ago he invited me over to dinner, I only liked a couple things he cooked.” She frowned.  
“Good that he's used to it.” Kira commented. 

-

“Chief, what're you eating?” Ezri asked innocently over lunch.  
“Corned beef and cabbage. It's an Earth dish, from Ireland, pretty salty.”  
“Could I try a bite?”  
“Sure.” He smiled and pushed his dish a little closer to hers, watched her take a bite and frown in thought.  
“It is very salty.” She commented as she reached for her drink. “I'm not sure how I feel about it.”  
“Not many folks like it who haven't grown up with it. Are you curious about Earth culture, or…?”  
“Not particularly, joining messed up my sense of taste, among other things, so now I have to figure out what I like all over again. I already know I still like most staple Trill foods, and I don't like raktajino, bloodwine, or hasperat.”  
“Maybe on a day off you could spend some time asking your replicator to make you small servings of different things.”  
“I probably should, but aside from going through its programmed dishes systematically, I'm not sure what I'd try.”  
“Nothing wrong with systematic.”  
“Tobin and Jadzia definitely agree with you. I'm going to go try a jumja stick, thanks for the company and conversation. And, y'know, letting me try your corn, beef, and cabbage.”  
“CorneD beef, it's a cooking technique.” He smiled. “I hope you like jumja sticks.”  
“Me, too.” 

-

“Dax, Jake-o and I wanted to make sure you knew you're welcome for dinner anytime, especially Sundays.” Sisko grinned at her.   
“Thanks, Benjamin. I'm still trying to work out the pattern for what foods I do and don't like.”  
“Don't worry about that, just try things.” He grinned. The next day after the morning briefing, he announced that he'd be making “enough good, down home, Creole comfort food to feed an army” Sunday evening and that they and their families were all invited to dinner. 

Most of the senior officers and their families were happily filling up their Captain's quarters Sunday evening, enjoying dinner. They had filled up the table and couch, some deciding to sit on the floor, others remained standing. They all passed Kirayoshi around, cooing over him and ensuring he never fussed for more than a few seconds, while Jake and Molly played with his old keyboard (that Ezri stayed away from).  
“Ben,” Kasidy wrapped an arm around his, “not that I'm complaining, is this for a particular reason?” Ezri caught his eye and nodded with a small smile, giving him permission to explain however he saw fit.  
“Giving Ezri a proper welcome to the station, and giving her some good Earth food to try.” The others had quieted at Kasidy's question and Sisko's answer, many of them now looking to Ezri. She felt her temperature start to rise.  
“Have you not had Earth food before?” Kasidy asked, curious.  
“I have, but not too much.” She focused on talking to her boss’ girlfriend. “And one of the side effects of joining that they didn't prepare me for is your tastes changing. I don't know if it's chemical or psychological, the result is I don't like all the food I used to, and Benjamin was kind enough to invite us all and cook all this amazing food so I didn't have to try the replicated version.”  
“Well then, Mr. Benjamin Sisko,” Kasidy held up her cup and everyone followed suit, even Yoshi with his sippy cup. “To you.” She toasted simply, smiling. They all grinned at him and took a sip. 

“Hey, Ezri.” Leeta smiled at her.  
“Hey, Leeta, what's up?”  
“We talked it over, Rom and Nog and I, and wanted to give you an open invitation to try some Ferengi and Bajoran food at our quarters if you like.”  
“Thank you for the invitation.” Ezri smiled. “I've never had Ferengi food before, can you describe it for me?”  
“It's mostly things like worms and grubs, but they can be cooked so you don't really realize what they are.”  
“Oh, cooked is good, for a second I thought it was like gagh, and I haven't had the best luck with Klingon food.” Ezri joked. 

“Miss Dax, I wrote a song for you!” Molly announced, running over.  
“Oh, um, okay, I'll come listen.” She smiled at Leeta apologetically, and held her hands tight behind her back as Molly played about a dozen notes and repeated them a couple times before grinning up at her. “Wow, thank you so much Molly, that was very pretty.” She smiled back at the girl. Joran would have considered it incredibly simplistic, but Molly hadn't even begun taking any music theory classes that Ezri knew of. 

“So joining really does a number on you, huh?” Jake smiled. “Space sickness, changing tastes, loads of new memories. I think I can see why you didn't want it.”  
“Yeah.” Ezri sighed. “For those who are trained and chosen, it's a huge honor and usually a big help to their career, having all these memories of different ways of thinking, but they're prepared for it. For me, while it will help in the future once I get all my memories and pronouns sorted out, it's a pain right now.”  
“At least you know you'll get there someday.” 

“Ah, Ezri.”  
“Julian.”  
“I just wanted to offer to show you a different variety of Earth food if you want. Earth has many cultures, many of them with their own food. I grew up on a different continent from Captain Sisko, so, er, if you're ever interested in trying British food, uh, I'm here.”  
“Thank you, I'll keep it in mind.” She grinned. 

After Ezri officially became Station Counselor, Odo and Kira invited her to dinner, as well. The O'Briens invited her to dinner not long after, though they asked that she let them know ahead of time so the kids could spend some time with their Aunt Nerys. She found some new food that she liked every dinner, and became closer friends with everyone. Leeta, Rom, and Nog were extremely apologetic when Ezri wasn't a fan of tube grub hasperat, but she did genuinely enjoy the salad with crunchy roasted maggots instead of croutons. Julian introduced her to fish and chips, Kira to a simple Bajoran stew, Miles and Keiko to Irish shepherd's pie and Japanese sushi (as one meal since they didn't want to presume and have her over twice if she didn't like what they picked first). Ezri and Keiko were pleased to find that Emony had already learned how to use chopsticks in her travels, so Ezri learned very quickly.  


-

A few days after Ezri had had dinner with everyone, she sent them all an invite for a get together in her quarters at 2100 the next week, asking them to bring a culturally traditional dessert to pass. She added that it was up to Dr. and Chief O'Brien if they wanted to bring their kids or find someone to watch them, and that they didn't have to bring 2 desserts if they didn't want to. 

Ezri was happily surveying her rearranged living room when her door chimed.  
“Come in.” She grinned. The Siskos and Kasidy hugged her and she directed them to set their dessert next to hers at her table along the wall, asking Ben to make a sign from the stiff paper she'd replicated and explain his dessert as best he could on it. The others arrived soon after. 

“Molly, what do you say to Miss Dax for inviting us?” Keiko prompted.  
“Yoshi's with Lieutenant Vilix'Pran. Can I give you a hug?”  
“Oh, of course you can!” Ezri grinned as she knelt down to hug the girl.  
“Molly, what else do you say?” Miles smiled.  
“Thank you for inviting me.” She recited.  
“You're very welcome.” 

Ezri waited a few minutes after everyone had arrived to interrupt their chatting.  
“Okay, everyone, I invited you to this to express my thanks for welcoming me to DS9, and your homes, and for sharing your cultures with me. We're all here, so let's dig in.”  
“Hear, hear.” Miles grinned. Ezri took a small serving of each dessert, though she didn't have high hopes for Rom, Leeta, and Nog's, which they described as juicy grubs in a tart fruit sauce. Both Kira and O'Brien brought a small cake, Kira's was deka tea flavored, O'Brien's was apple flavored. Keiko brought green tea flavored mashed rice balls and Ben brought fried dough with fine-ground sugar on top. Ezri didn't expect those to taste like much. Julian brought candy tubes with light sweet cream filling that looked fragile, but Ezri was curious to try. His explanation card assured that though they were called brandy snaps, they didn't contain any alcohol. The group's chatter picked up again quickly as people commented on the different desserts to each other. 

“Ezri, this is really good.” Jake smiled.  
“I'm glad you like it, be careful, it does have some caffeine in it.”  
“I saw. It's kind of like tiramisu.”  
“That last word didn't translate.” Ezri frowned. “What is it?”  
“Tiramisu is another Earth dessert. It's got uh, plain cookies that have been soaked in strong coffee, and they're layered with stuff like sweet cream and chocolate, I think. The most distinguishing part is the coffee cookies. I think it's Italian.”  
“What's Italian?”  
“Italy was one of the nation-states on Earth.”  
“You humans have so many different cultures. But I'm not complaining, since it led to so many different types of foods and art styles and such.” She grinned.  
“Were any of your past hosts artists?”  
“Well, Joran was a musician. Emony was a gymnast, and she definitely considered it an art form. But I don't think any Dax host has been especially drawn to visual art.”  
“So you just listed art as an example?”  
“Kind of. It's been very interesting for me to compare the art in everyone's quarters. Your dad has art from Africa? Did I get it right?”  
“Yeah.” He smiled.  
“Dr. O'Brien has Japanese art. The Chief and Dr. Bashir both have 2-dimensional photos of their home countries. It's just interesting for me to see the differences between the different cultures’ art styles.”  
“Psychologically?”  
“No, just…” She searched for the right words. “It helps me, Ezri, feel closer to everyone, not just the awkward semi-artificial closeness through Jadzia's memories. Sharing good food and conversation helps, too.”   
“Which is why you organized this.”   
“A big part of it, yeah.”  
“I think it was good idea.”   
“Thanks, Jake.” She grinned. 

Ezri was pleasantly surprised to enjoy most of the desserts that people had brought, even Rom’s fruity grubs. Something about Miles’ apple cake and Kira’s deka tea cake didn’t sit right with her, though it was entirely possible she just wasn’t a big fan of cake anymore (the possibility of which frustrated her). Sisko’s fried dough, called benyays was good, as were Julian’s brandy snaps, both very sweet, and Keiko’s green tea mochee had a surprisingly good texture, not mushy like she expected. 

The O’Briens were the first to leave, having to pick up Yoshi from Vilix’Pran’s quarters and put Molly to bed. After hugging everyone goodbye, Ezri happily cleaned up for a bit until her exhaustion caught up with her and she quickly fell asleep on the awkward Cardassian bed, leaving the rest of the cleaning and furniture moving for the morning.   


**Author's Note:**

> I spelled beignet and mochi wrong on purpose since Ezri wouldn't necessarily know how to spell them (depending on how the universal translator works and if Sisko and Keiko put the name of their dessert on the explanation card).


End file.
